Parker Avenue and Kent Street Traffic Calming

Neighborhood RequestIn February 2013, residents living along Parker Avenue and Kent Street submitted requests for traffic calming under the City's Neighborhood Traffic Calming (NTC) Program. In their requests, neighborhood residents identified the following concerns:

Motorists driving too fast along Parker Avenue

Motorists using Parker Avenue as a cut-through between East Broad Street (Route 7) and South Washington Street (Route 29)

Lack of crosswalks, visibility, and lighting at the intersection of Parker Avenue and Kent Street - making it difficult for pedestrians to safely cross the street

High concentration of children (and risks to them) given the presence of a school bus stop and the Tiger Trail

The CACT invited the neighborhood to a public meeting on March 2013. At the meeting, the neighborhood discussed their concerns about traffic in the neighborhood

City staff and the CACT then worked to develop a recommended solution for traffic calming based on neighborhood comments and automobile speed and volume data

The recommended solution was distributed to the neighborhood in July 2013 via neighborhood survey. 73 Percent of the neighborhood responded supporting the recommended solution

Based on the feedback from the neighborhood, the CACT made a positive recommendation to the City Manager's office that the proposed traffic calming solution be implemented

Implementation

In February 2014, City Council allocated $100,000 in funding to implement the proposed solution

At that time, City Staff was unprepared to add this project to their work plan before the new fiscal year (beginning in July) and could not work on this project without delaying other projects and putting state and federal grant funding at risk of de-allocation

City staff is now proceeding with implementation according to the below schedule:

Engineering/Design

City staff is working with a consultant engineering firm to complete engineering/design work for this project.